"I knew then that the SOB was going to be a 'star.' "

By Alison Willmore on 08/26/2008

The world in quotes:

"I knew then that the SOB was going to be a 'star,' "
         --Christopher Plummer's thoughts (and judicious use of quotation marks) on having to give understudy William Shatner a chance at his role in a 1956 stage production of "Henry V," after a one-night stand dislodged a kidney stone and put him in surgery, at Page Six.

"The event for London could never have the same political clout as Beijing; we should find a way to be self-advertising. Considering the British traditions of free speech and the individual, and the British suspicion of organised crowds, we would want to avoid the Leni Riefenstahl connotations which were there in Beijing. And the ceremony was too long."
         --Peter Greenaway on how London should handle its Olympic opening ceremony, at the Telegraph.

"I'm very unhappy with the film. I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."
         --Mathieu Kassovitz (who, we must always remind you, once directed "La Haine") tries to distance himself from "Babylon A.D.," at AMCTV.

"I take things that come my way. When I go do acting jobs, I really miss standup, and when I'm on the road for a while, I need to go act. If I'm in an Ashton Kutcher movie here and there, I know it's really against my style, but I'm not so elitist. One day I hope to be that, don't get me wrong; I'd love to be so snobby."
         --Zach Galifianakis on choosing roles, at Paste.

"I didn't want to [see those parallels] because of how I felt politically, but I couldn't help it. I was reading these books about W., and I took out a pen to record the similarities between me and him: He and his father, he and his mother--I grew up with a very strong mother, too. But professionally, I was never embittered by the whole process like he was."
         --Josh Brolin on, like the character he plays in "W.", having a famous dad, at New York.

"You're black with a British accent, and they're like [he makes a face] 'Say that again?'... I was trying so hard to desperately pretend that I was American. I just walked around all day practising my accent and seeing if I could fool people, like bus drivers."
         --Idris Elba on moving to America, at the London Times.

[Photo: William Shatner in "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous," Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005]